in which i dream of pastures and farms

it's raining. again. last time i posted, it was raining as well, and for several solid wintry storms to come so low as sunny california in so short a time is pretty atypical. dreary weather has swallowed us up. and i love it.

if it weren't for winter and its precipitative nature, how would i sustain my garden come summer? last week, i ordered my warm-weather seeds. i'm anxiously awaiting their arrival. living in a USDA zone 9 affords a long growing season; i'll start some seeds in cell packs as soon as i can. propagation methods will not differ greatly from last year's, but the varieties of seeds i selected do. my choosy tendencies come into play here!

though our garden plot is not large by any means, i do feel like a real, grown-up gardener when things are growing well and producing. growing and nurturing the garden makes me appreciate those farmers that work on larger farms, or those farmers who didn't have the modern conveniences we do today...

i suppose that maybe the daydreams of warmer days and turning soil was already in my head when i started scouring ravelry for a new knit project. i had a skein of malabrigo worsted in glazed carrot in the stash -- one i'd bought last summer when i saw the lone skein of it sitting in the store. i'd been feeling that a cowl in that orangey color would be perfect in all of this gray weather, especially since i walk about in a charcoal gray jacket, jeans and dark shoes most days. i came across gudrun's crofter's cowl and cast on immediately. the cowl is unlike any other i've knit, with a unique construction: you knit two halves then graft them together. the three-repeat pattern for each half is a shetland lace, which is beautifully showcased with the single ply, lofty malabrigo.


this project definitely required stitch markers, though i believe it was due to the fact that i was watching heavy doses of HGTV while knitting and staying dry inside. i worried that my kitchener's stitch was too tight and created a visibly invisible seam, but i think that what looks like a seam is more the cause of the color variegation typical of malabrigo. in any case, when the cowl is all slouchy on the neck, the midline is the least visible part...

in other knitting news, my modified annikki is almost done. yes, really! the sleeves were done last week, i cast off the back last night, and am halfway up the left front. besides the most basic mods i noted over here, i have also made further changes mid-knit. i've been certain to take notes and hopefully i continue to make progress in the right direction. once i finish, you'll be the first to know, of course!